Liking, Loving and Leaving
by SemperFiNeverForget051909
Summary: They say that the ones that you love the most are usually the ones that hurt you the most. Well, I think I love her the most yet I'd give her the most painful blow. I don't think bullets and knives and punches are anything compared to it..."
1. Liking and Loving

**AN: Inspired by the rainy weather in Double Identity. This is just a prologue, and I'm not sure if I would continue this or not. If I get struck with plot bunnies again, maybe? And if listening to Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now' and Beyonce's 'Halo' would help, I would most likely post another chapter.**

**Disclaimers: I own nothing, sorry. Just the idea for the fanfic. But the characters, NCIS, the rainy weather, NO.**

**Spoilers: Nine Lives and Truth or Consequences. A little of Double Identity.**

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**When Ziva was seven, a boy told her he liked her. She punched him and he never showed up again ever since.

20 years later, another boy named Tony not really told her that he liked her, although it was something along those lines that sort of went beyond "liking".

Tony didn't get punched though. Instead, he ended up on the floor with a gun pressed onto his chest. It wasn't because of "liking" her, but he did kill another man that liked her, and it so happened that she liked him back.

Tony didn't kill the man Ziva liked because he was jealous. But she didn't know that back then.  
Since that day, Tony flew back to his own country and Ziva thought that she would never see him again.

But she did. And she never expected it.  
The boy she met when she was younger learned his lesson: To never tell an assassin-in-training that you like her. If you're lucky, you just get punched. If not, you die of course.

But Tony. Tony, who, months ago sat tied on a chair never learned his lesson, because he told her what seemed closer to something she did not want to accept.  
If circumstances had been different, he would be, without any doubt, dead, even before he could explain himself.

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A year's about to go by and now, as they sit across each other in the squad room, with the rain pouring down as hard as it could down the city, she couldn't help wondering if what he said to her that day is the 'almost-truth' that she wants it to be. Needs it to be.

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**Continue or not?**


	2. Loving and Leaving

**AN: I JUST NEED TO LET THIS OUT. Please don't throw sticks and stones because this ain't finished yet. Please don't get angry at me.**

**Disclaimers: I love my brother so much.**

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He already handed over his resignation letter to Vance.

He isn't sure whether Vance liked the fact that he was resigning. He doesn't have to wonder any longer.

"Are you sure of your decision, Agent DiNozzo?"

"Yes sir." Tony replied with all the conviction he could muster.

"Does Agent Gibbs know about this?"

"I will let him know as soon as possible." He turns away and walsk towards the door, but not before Vance could say that he's been a good agent, one of the best he's worked with and their doors are open anytime he wants to return.

"I appreciate it, Director." He returns to his desk to finish up the last paperwork he's ever going to have.

"Not done with your paperwork yet?" His female co-worker asks as she stands in front of Tony's desk, her hands on her hips. Tony notices that she sounds a little too cheerful today, much like how Abby is when the latter has taken gallons of Caf Pow! In one day.

Suddenly feeling tired, he replies, "Nope. Got to finish this. Gibbs' expecting it to be on his desk before he gets in at 06:00."

"I bought tickets for a Hitchcock screening at the Cineplex tonight…I was hoping you could come." She feels a little deflated, he could tell by the way the tone of her voice changed.

"I would join you if I could, but….duty calls." Embarrassment.

"I was kind of expecting that you would be able to put off your work for Psycho….I guess there's a first time for everything." She lets out a sigh. So much for getting hopes up.

"Yeah."

They chuckle.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I'll be right here when you walk out the elevator."

She knows that she would see him another day. She's sure of it, but still she walks around his desk, stands between his legs, leans down and plants a gentle kiss to his cheek. Her lips linger on his skin for more than a few seconds; definitely longer than what you would call—then she pulls away.

She waits for a "What was that for" that never comes and assumes that maybe, just maybe he appreciated the sign of affection she showed. He only regards her thoughtfully and does not say anything until she gives a little wave of her hands as a goodbye and disappears into the elevator.

When he's certain that he's left alone in the bullpen, he places his full attention on his task—completing his last paperwork AND packing up (he's surprised Ziva never noticed the two boxes that are going to carry his stuff).

In the midst of GSM magazines, fuzzy handcuffs, Mighty Mouse staplers, American Pie Mugs and all, he thinks whether Ziva would be in the cheerful demeanor she was in just moments ago when he breaks the news to them tomorrow.

He goes over the plan in his head.

_Who would be the first to know? The first to know should be the easiest. Okay, one is Gibbs. Wait, scratch that. Oh no. Don't. That's it. I'll worry about the headslap that would surely come later. GAH. He'd be the last. THAT'S IT._

_SO. First would be Ducky and Palmer. No questions asked._

_Then, the second would be McGee AND Abby. Abby would probably scream 'when were you going to tell me?' and McGee would keep her from completely falling apart._

He stops himself before he could go any further because he knows really well that THAT would be the most difficult. If he could, he'd rather leave it like that. He wouldn't plan for it.

_It'd be a spur-of-the-moment situation. She'd just know. Maybe someone would bring it up in a conversation at the bullpen and she would look up and furrow her brows and wonder why she never knew and would probably ignore it and go back to her work like she never heard anything and the hours would tick by until Gibbs tells them to go home and she goes home to her apartment and and and and._

But then again, he told her that he'd 'be right here when you walk out the elevator'.

Oh well, screw it. Screw the plans.

_Whatever happens, happens._

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**This needs closure, doesn't it?**


End file.
